Board changes called GOP power grab by Democrats

A state Senate committee Tuesday backed a Republican proposal to fire the members of several key regulatory and policy boards and let GOP Gov. Pat McCrory and the party's legislative leaders pick their replacements.

Democrats called it a GOP power grab, while Republicans said it's a cost-saving measure that also gives the new governor the ability to place quickly his own mark in state government. The legislation also would do away with more than a dozen state boards and commissions, scale back others by size or term lengths and reshuffle the power to make appointments to the panels.

"We're cleaning up some things that have been left behind, some of them for as long as four decades," said Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, one of the bill's chief sponsors, adding that it should make the state more efficient and save $2 million.

Democrats on the committee said they were floored by the plan to dismiss all current members of significant panels such as the North Carolina Utilities Commission, state Industrial Commission, Coastal Resources Commission and state Lottery Commission.

"I think it is a breathtaking and unprecedented power grab — there's no other way to describe it," said Senate Minority Whip Josh Stein, D-Wake, adding that removing everyone at once means the panels lose expertise in things such as regulating power companies and coastal issues.

"Look, they won. I understand that Gov. McCrory gets to make appointments," Stein said, "but their throwing the entire thing out so they can put their folks on is just wrong."

Rabon disagreed that the bill was a power grab or about replacing Democrats on boards and commissions with Republicans. He said some who are dismissed could be reappointed. But he acknowledged the bill would give McCrory the ability to place his own mark on government.

The new "administration may see fit to have the people on boards and commissions that, let's say, are more like minded and who are willing to carry out the desires, if you will, or the philosophy of the new administration," Rabon told committee members.

Democrats in charge of state government placed their imprint on such panels for generations. Republicans haven't been in charge of both the executive and legislative branches in more than 140 years.

Rabon disagreed that the wholesale cleanup, or even dismissal, of commissions and boards was extraordinary. Senate Republican leaders cited past legislation at the start of previous administrations — both Democratic and Republican — they say show the same thing occurred. Veteran observers at the Legislative Building couldn't recall such recent wholesale changes as in Tuesday's bill.

Either state law or by tradition, the terms of members who serve on the boards and commissions usually don't expire all at once.

Rabon said he expected McCrory to be happy with parts of the bill, but didn't say which areas. McCrory Press Secretary Crystal Feldman said the administration hadn't seen the bill as of midday Tuesday and couldn't comment.

Stein asked Rabon whether commission members had done anything wrong to warrant being fired. Rabon said the seven-member Utilities Commission, which regulates telecommunications, electric and natural gas markets, at times has been accused of being "rubber stamps" for some utility companies. The commission decides, for example, whether utilities like Duke Energy can raise their customer rates.

Molly Diggins, state director of the Sierra Club, said the legislation targets environmental commissions in particular. The Environmental Management Commission, Coastal Resources Commission and a coastal advisory council would see their current memberships dismissed and panel numbers reduced. The governor would appoint a smaller percentage of the total members to some of the panels.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation said in a release it was a "radical bill that "completely overturns decades of work by state lawmakers and governors to promote balance and partnerships into how the state manages its environment."

The bill could have gone farther. A provision that would have created two additional seats for justices on the state Supreme Court in early 2015 was removed in the committee. The state constitution allows the state's highest court to have up to nine justices. There are currently seven on the court.